Workshops & Speaking

Signe provides training nationwide for professionals, parents, and kids on topics related to bullying, assertive anger expression, and child and adolescent mental and behavioral health. To arrange a customized workshop on any of the topics below, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com:

Friendship & Other Weapons:

Group Activities to Help Young Girls Cope with Bullying

Friendship & Other Weapons workshops are based on the book’s 12-session curriculum, written for parents and professionals living and working with elementary school-aged girls. Customized training provides information, strategies, and activity ideas for giving parents, professionals, and young girls the knowledge and skills to effectively manage bullying.

Interactive workshops, based on the book, are about breaking the code of silence that governs conflict among girls in the early school years. By creating safe, open, and fun forums, participants of all ages can talk, listen, compare experiences, and gain new skills for confronting incidents of cruelty disguised as friendship.

Professionals and Parents (Customizable half and full-day workshops)

The early school years are a critical window of time in the social and emotional development of young girls. Professionals and parents are in an ideal position to shape a girl’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors when it comes to social aggression and bullying. Friendship & Other Weapons workshops give caring adults a detailed roadmap and realistic resources for guiding girls through this unique period of their development.

Mothers & Daughters (Customizable half and full-day workshops)

Parents often struggle with the question of, “Should I intervene in my daughter’s friendship problems?” The line between helicopter and hands-off parenting can get confusing, as adults waver between wanting to protect their daughters from any kind of hurt and believing that girl fighting is an inevitable rite of passage.

Mother-daughter seminars based on Friendship & Other Weapons bring moms and girls together to address such topics as picking healthy friendships, standing up to bullying, and using social media wisely. Girls gain from learning how to talk about the nature of girl bullying and friendship challenges with their parents while Moms benefit from learning the red flags of relational aggression (aka girl bullying,) in today’s social media landscape. Mother-daughter workshops help open the lines of communication and foster trusting relationships between parents and children.

Elementary School Aged Girls (45-60 minutes)

In this interactive presentation, girls will participate in engaging games, strength-discovering exercises, and hands-on activities to learn important friendship survival skills such as:

Recognizing the Red Flags of Girl Bullying

STANding up to Bullying

Stopping Rumors

Realizing Personal Strengths

Connecting with Healthy Friendships

Fostering Empathy & Cooperation in Girls

Becoming an Ally to Others Facing Bullying

Resolving Conflicts Directly

Using Technology and Social Media Ethically

Reaching Out to Trustworthy Adults

Making Values-Based Decisions

Rather than using the Friendship & Other Weapons title for kid audiences, the term Real Friendships is substituted, to emphasize the solution-focused, skill-building nature of each customizable presentation. Assembly organizers can select from the topics above to create a unique, hands-on experience for girls.

For more information about the Friendship & Other Weapons curriculum or to arrange a customized workshop in your area, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com

How to Be Angry:

An Assertive Anger Expression Skills Workshop

From the time they are toddlers, children are coaxed by adults to hide their feelings of anger behind a social smile. Worse yet, kids hear the explicit message, “Don’t be angry,” and are actively encouraged to deny this most basic of human emotions. When they act out—either through the tantrums of their earliest years or the rebellion of their teenage ones—they are chastened for all of the behaviors that adults do not want them to use.

How to Be Angry: A15-Session Assertive Anger Expression Group Guide for Kids flips this traditional approach. Rather that hammering away at all of the things kids should not do when it comes to expressing their anger, the skill-building activities and discussions in this book provide instruction for kids on how to be angry effectively, using assertive behaviors to confront and manage real-life situations.

Professionals and Parents (Customizable half and full-day workshops)

How to Be Angry workshops provide a roadmap for educators, counselors, social workers, youth care professionals, and parents to steer children, tweens, and teens through the convoluted pathways of anger expression. Based on the book’s 15-session social-emotional curriculum, training provides participants with specific skills for understanding anger and expressing it in assertive, relationship-enhancing ways.

Parents and Kids (Customizable half and full-day workshops)

An ideal way to experience a How to Be Angry workshop is to attend with your son or daughter. Using engaging activities, games, and discussion, parents learn critical skills for role modeling assertive anger expression and receiving their child’s anger effectively while kids learn specific skills, including:

For information on bringing How to Be Angry workshops to your school or organization, please contact Signe via e-mail at Signe@SigneWhitson.com

Life Space Crisis Intervention Certification Training

Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is an interactive therapeutic strategy for turning crisis situations into learning opportunities for children and youth with chronic patterns of self-defeating behaviors. This non-physical intervention program uses a multi-theoretical approach to behavior management and problem solving. LSCI provides educators, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and youth care professionals with advanced skills for teaching and creating positive relationships with youth who:

Act out in stress toward unsuspecting helpers, sparking explosive and endless power struggles

Make poor decisions based on distorted thought patterns and perceptual errors

Have the right intentions and motivation but lack the social skills to be successful

Are purposefully aggressive and exploitive with little conscience

Act in self-damaging ways due to being burdened with shame and inadequacy

Become entangled in destructive peer relationships and are vulnerable to manipulation

LSCI Certification offers 30 CEU’s for licensed social workers and professional counselors in most states. Graduate credits can also be obtained for successful completion of the course.

NOW AVAILABLE: Beginning August 2011, Part 1 of the LSCI Certification: Introduction to LSCI will be offered as an online course.

For more information on LSCI’s new online option or to arrange an LSCI Certification training for your school, organization, or workplace, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com or visit www.lsci.org for a National Training Site in your area.

LSCI Refresher Training

The LSCI Refresher Course is designed for those who have successfully completed the certification course. The 1-day workshop provides a forum for review and practice of critical LSCI skills and discussion about implementing LSCI in the real-world. Participants are given extensive opportunities to role play and diagnose LSCI crisis situations.

The LSCI Refresher offers 6 CEU’s for licensed social workers and professional counselors in most states. Please contact Signe for full details.

For more information or to arrange an LSCI Refresher training for your school, organization, or workplace, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com or visit www.lsci.org for a National Training Site in your area.

The Angry Smile

The Angry Smile course is designed for anyone who lives, works, or interacts with a passive aggressive person and wants to better understand and manage the often-troubling dynamics. The 1-day workshop takes an in-depth look at the roots of passive aggressive behavior in children, exploring masked anger at five distinct and increasingly pathological levels.

The Angry Smile training features the Passive Aggressive Conflict Cycle as well as eight specific skills for responding effectively to passive aggressive behavior. The course trains participants in a six-step process for confronting and changing passive aggressive behaviors in the long-term, using extensive discussion, video examples, and role play.

Signe Whitson is the co-author of The Angry Smile: The Psychology of Passive Aggressive Behavior in Families, Schools, and Workplaces, 2nd ed.

The Angry Smile course offers 6 CEU’s for licensed social workers and professional counselors in most states. Contact Signe for details.

For more information or to arrange an Angry Smile training for your school, organization, or workplace, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com

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Signe Whitson is an author and educator on bullying, crisis intervention, and child and adolescent emotional and behavioral health. In her articles, books, and training workshops, Signe provides down-to-earth, practical advice for professionals and parents on navigating the daily challenges of living and working with children, tweens and teens.